In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,804,051 issued Apr. 16, 1974 and entitled "Anchor Adapter Bracket" (the entire content of this prior patent being expressly incorporated hereinto by reference), there is disclosed a novel anchor support bracket having a pair of anchor support surfaces and a pair of resilient pads that maintain the anchor, when raised, in a substantially horizontal position. Although the anchor adapter bracket disclosed in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,804,051 solved several practical problems associated with the stowage and transport of marine craft anchors, some improvements were still needed.
For example, in the anchor support bracket of my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,804,051, the anchor is locked in its horizontal position via a rigid safety pin extending through the anchor's eye and slidably supported at each of its ends via the anchor support sidewalls. While such a rigid safety pin locking system does, in fact, provide reliable locking of the anchor/anchor bracket during periods of anchor stowage, a problem exists that the pin may bend or otherwise distort due to forcible shocks it may receive when the marine craft is in transit across water swells or during portage of the craft, for example. Any bending or distortion of the rigid safety pin renders it difficult to remove when the anchor is again desired to be set -- a situation which may present an inconvenience to the boater at best and, at worst, may prevent the anchorage of the marine craft due to the anchor being "forzen" in place via the bent and/or distorted safety pin.
According to one particularly important aspect of this invention, however, a releasable locking assembly is provided which overcomes the problems associated with the rigid safety pin system disclosed in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,804,051. Preferably, the releasable locking assembly is embodied in an "over-the-center" spring system which includes a manually actuated lever pivotally connected to one of the lateral support members of the anchor bracket so as to the capable of pivotal movements between unlocked and locked positions.
A tension spring (or other suitable biasing means) has one end connected to the leaver at a pivot point located rearwardly of the lever's pivot connection to the lateral support member. The other end of the tension spring is configured, for example, in the form of a hook, so as to be capable of connection to the anchor's tail.
With the tension spring connected to the anchor's tail, the lever may then be pivoted into its locked position which, in turn, causes the tension spring to expand and thereby exert a bias force on the anchor rearwardly against its support structure associated with the anchor bracket. Moreover, once the lever has been pivoted towards its locked position a sufficient amount so that the bias force vector exerted by the tension spring lies below the pivot point of the lever (i.e., below the lever's pivot connection to the lateral support member of the anchor bracket), the tension spring will serve the additional beneficial function of biasing the lever in a direction which tends to cause it to pivot into its locked position. This pivotal biasing of the lever thereby assures that, even should shock forces of abnormal magnitude be experienced during movement of the marine craft over the water or during portage, the lever will be maintained in its locked position until the boater manually pivots it against the bias force of the spring when the anchor is again desired to be set.
It will be realized that once the bias force vector lies above the leaver's pivot point (i.e., above the leaver's pivot connection to the lateral support of the anchor bracket, the lever will then be biased into its unlocked position (i.e., in a pivot direction opposite to that exerted upon the lever when the bias force vector lies below the lever pivot point) thereby assisting the boater in removing the anchor from its locked relationship with the anchor bracket.
Another advantageous feature of the present invention is that a novel winch is provided which may be used in operative combination with the anchor bracket so as to provide a complete anchor davit assembly. The winch of this invention will, however, find other uses in marine and non-marine environments where a load is desired to be manually winched. According the winch of this invention, a spool is rotatably mounted to an axle. A line, cable, chain or the like which is connected to the load (which, in the context of an anchor davit assembly, is the anchor itself) may thus be wound and unwound from the spool in dependance upon the load being hoisted or lowered, respectively. A manyally actuated handle is pivotally coupled at one of its ends to a distal end of the axle.
The handle defines at its pivoted end a suitable cam profile which operates to force a friction member against the spool as the handle is pivoted from its released position (in which the friction member minimally, if at all, frictionally engages the spool and thus permits the spool to freely rotate around the axle) and an engaged position (in which the cam member forces for friction member into frictional engagement with the spool and thus, in essence, establishes a substantially rigid connection between the handle and the spool). It will be appreciated that, with the handle in its engaged position, the handle and spool may be rotated as a unit so as to hoist the anchor (or other load to which the line is attached). Also, the cam surface may be caused to apply greater/lesser force against the friction member in dependance upon the handle member being in a position intermediate its released and engaged positions. This capability permits the boater (or winch operator) to allow the line to pay out at lesser/greater rates, respectively, and thus maintain control over the descending load.
The advantages mentioned above, and others will become more clear to the reader after careful consideration is given to the detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof which follow.